James William Gilbart (1794–1863) was an English banker and author.

Life

He was the General Manager of the London and Westminster Bank 1833–1859, one of the first

joint-stock A joint-stock company is a business entity in which shares of the company's stock can be bought and sold by shareholders. Each shareholder owns company stock in proportion, evidenced by their shares (certificates of ownership). Shareholders are ...

banks in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. His work and frequently updated books such as his ''Practical Treatise on Banking'' (1827) were eventually widely adopted to improve the British banking systems and laid the foundations of the modern publicly owned

retail bank Retail banking, also known as consumer banking or personal banking, is the provision of services by a bank to the general public, rather than to companies, corporations or other banks, which are often described as wholesale banking. Banking serv ...

and

Building Society A building society is a financial institution owned by its members as a mutual organization. Building societies offer banking and related financial services, especially savings and mortgage lending. Building societies exist in the United Ki ...

movement. It was Gilbart who standardised the modern spelling of the word ''

cheque A cheque, or check (American English; see spelling differences) is a document that orders a bank (or credit union) to pay a specific amount of money from a person's account to the person in whose name the cheque has been issued. The pers ...

'' in his book ''Practical Treatise on Banking'', and formalised this in subsequent legislation. Some claim that the spelling was derived from early notes issued by Goldsmiths of London. Gilbart was made a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemati ...

in 1846. He never married, and devoted much of his life to banking, writing, and his societies. He died at his home at Brompton Crescent,

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and is buried in a

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

Grade II-listed mausoleum at

West Norwood Cemetery West Norwood Cemetery is a rural cemetery in West Norwood in London, England. It was also known as the South Metropolitan Cemetery. One of the first private landscaped cemeteries in London, it is one of the " Magnificent Seven" cemeteries of ...

accredited to the architect

Sir William Tite Sir William Tite (7 February 179820 April 1873) was an English architect who twice served as President of the Royal Institute of British Architects. He was particularly associated with various London buildings, with railway stations and cemetery ...

References

* Robert Brown (2004) "Gilbart, James William (1794–1863)", ''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'', Oxford University Press, http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/10672, accessed 22 Nov 2006 (subscription required)

External links

Gothic monument at West Norwood Cemetery

Gilbart Medal
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gilbart, James William English bankers 1794 births 1863 deaths Burials at West Norwood Cemetery Fellows of the Royal Society 19th-century English businesspeople